By Congresswoman Eddie Bernice Johnson
While a member of the Texas legislature, I introduced legislation that mandated providing meals to children from low income families. It is extremely important that during the summer months, school children from low-income households are provided with healthy and nutritious meals.
During the school year approximately 70 percent of Dallas County students receive free or reduced meals. During the months of June, July and August, many of these children do not know where they will receive their next meal and are at great risk of going hungry or consuming unhealthy food items.
This should not be the case, because these same children are eligible to participate in the summer meals program funded by the United States Department of Agriculture and administered by the Texas Department of Agriculture. Various non-profits and faith-based organizations have established feeding sites throughout North Texas.
The summer feeding sites are open from June 8th through August 21st, three days before the start of school year. According to the Texas Department of Agriculture, only ten percent of the approximately 173,000 eligible children in North Texas participate in the summer feeding program, and throughout the state of Texas, only 12-percent of the nearly three million students who receive free or reduced meals are enrolled in summer feeding programs.
CitySquare, the Dallas based non-profit organization, operates approximately 110 sites throughout Dallas County and feeds approximately 15,000 children on a daily basis. The organization, which also has feeding sites in Houston and Austin, has vans that travel to apartment complexes to feed children whose parents do not have transportation or who work during the hours that meals are served.
In Dallas County, there are more than one thousand approved feeding sites where children under the age of 18 can be fed. Participating providers include churches, apartment complexes, libraries, civic organizations and schools.
The involvement of faith-based organizations in summer feeding programs is crucial and welcomed. Such organizations can become sites for feeding, and through their outreach programs, can make children and their parents aware of various feeding sites.
